Moldovan PM meets World Bank's vice president

Chisinau, 3 November /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip today had a meeting with World Bank’s Vice President for European and Central Asia Cyril E. Muller, the government’s communication and media relations department has reported.  

The PM described the high official’s visit as a sign of confidence in Moldova, stressing that trust had lately become a key word in messages and actions of the government. “We have undertaken a string of reforms in the last months, in order to regain the confidence of the citizens and foreign partners,” Pavel Filip said.  

The prime minister thanked the World Bank for the constant support provided to Moldova, noting that the assistance of this international institution was related to the cabinet’s priorities. “The WB has always been one of the most important partners of Moldova, which came with essential contributions, with impact both in the public and in the private sectors. Yet, the backing offered in working out policies is even more important for us than the financial support,” the prime minister said.  

Pavel Filip specified that the government’s priorities perfectly fit the three pillars for the next Strategy, preliminarily selected by the World Bank: governance and rule of law state; enhancing competences of human resources; improving providing of public services. In the context, the PM referred to the reform of the State Chancellery, government and public administration, the goal of which is to enhance the competences of the human resources and ensure a more flexible and efficient public administration.    

For his part, World Bank’s Vice President for Europe and central Asia Cyril E. Muller congratulated the government for the achievements got on a relatively short period of time in stabilizing the country’s economic and financial situation. He voiced WB’s willingness to further back the cabinet in promoting reforms, especially the public administration reform.

The World Bank official encouraged the government to be consistent in actions and clearly establish the priorities for the next 4-5 years, with the priorities discussed in detail with the public, private sectors and the civil society. The government’s priorities will be taken into account when working out the next World Bank’s Country Partnership Strategy for 2017-2020, the WB official stressed.   

In the context, Pavel Filip expressed the government’s openness to actively participate in public consultations on the draft new Country Partnership Strategy of the World Bank. The prime minister also said he relied in continuation on a good cooperation with this international financial institution. In this respect, Filip noted that, at a cabinet meeting of 2 November, the government members had approved a decision on initiating negotiations on a draft agreement on financing between the Moldovan government and the World Bank for the Development Policy Operations programme (DPO-2). The unlocking and earmarking of the budgetary support for DPO-2 is to be made till late 2016.

Presently, the World Bank’s portfolio in Moldova includes ten active projects with an overall sum of commitments worth 365.3 million dollars.  

(Editor M. Jantovan)